364 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



blister and that scab, of which you do not know the cause, have 

 to come, either by the corruption of the enemies which these 

 little giants have slain, or by the plague produced by the rem- 

 nants of the food with which the disturbers have gorged them- 

 selves, and left in heaps of dead bodies on the field ; or because 

 the tyrant, after having driven from around himself his compan- 

 ions which were corking with their bodies the pores of ours, has 

 given passage to the humor, which has become corrupt after 

 having been ejected from the sphere of the circulation of our 

 blood. For a further proof of this universal parasitism, you 

 have only to consider how the blood runs to the spot where you 

 are wounded. The doctors tell you that it is guided by Provident 

 Nature, which desires to succor the debilitated parts; which 

 would make us conclude that besides the soul and mind there is 

 in us a third intellectual substance having its functions and 

 organs apart. But for this reason I find it more probable to say 

 that these little animals, feeling themselves attacked, send to their 

 neighbors for aid, and they having come from all around, and the 

 country being incapable of supporting so many people, they die 

 of hunger, or are smothered by the pressure. This mortality 

 takes place when the imposthume is ripe ; for the corrupted flesh 

 then becomes insensible in testimony that the animals have been 

 smothered ; and that the bleeding which we order to divert the in- 

 flammation is because that, having lost much by the opening which 

 these little animals tried to cork up, they refused to assist their 

 allies because they were hardly able to take care of themselves." 



Cyrano tried to go up to the moon by tying around his waist 

 bottles full of dew, which, according to the opinion then received, 

 was attracted by the sun. He was not able to rise so high ; but, 

 after breaking a considerable number of bottles, he pretended 

 almost to nullify the weight of his body, so that he could travel 

 by long leaps, only grazing the earth, as many people fancy in 

 their sleep that they are doing. " He reached the moon by means 

 of a machine which he does not describe, and found there another 

 terrestrian who had raised himself up by the aid of a Montgolfier 

 and a parachute. He filled two large vessels with smoke, sealed 

 them hermetically, and fastened them under his arms ; the smoke, 

 which tended to rise and could not penetrate the metal, immedi- 

 ately pushed the vessels up, and they carried the man with them. 

 . . . When he had risen to the moon, ... he promptly untied the 

 vessels which he had bound as wings to his shoulders, and did it 

 with such success that he had just reached the lunar air, four 

 toises above the moon, when he took leave of his flippers. The ele- 

 vation was still great enough for him to have been considerably 

 hurt, if the wind had not inflated the voluminous folds of his robe, 

 and gently sustained him till he set foot on the ground.'* 



